World’s Toughest Job, Take 2: Budweiser Dumps on Dads [video]

Budweiser, you blew it. You had a perfect chance to build brand loyalty among a demographic who could certainly use a cold beer now and again.

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As you may already know, a video titled the World’s Toughest Job went viral recently. It was made by a major greeting card company to celebrate Mother’s Day. (The second of the two videos above.) At this point it has been viewed 14 million times. In this video, real folks were interviewed for an incredibly difficult job. The job required 135 plus hours a week, pays nothing, requires you stay on your feet all day long and so on. After the interviewees spend a few minutes being shocked that anyone would do a job like this, they were informed that millions do this job every day. “Moms”.

Dads were not mentioned. Stay at Home dads were definitely not mentioned. So, the video’s makers seem to feel to that women raise children and men do not. I won’t belabor the obvious, but NPR reports men are primary care givers in huge numbers.

Yes, I realize its for Mother’s Day. But the narrative is just too one sided. Mom’s raise kids. They do the world’s toughest job.

I’d like to think we’re going to move past this kind of sarcasm about dads, but so far, no dice.

Now we have this humor piece from Budweiser created to spoof the World’s Toughest Job video. It’s another lazy, sloppy contribution to the conversation by a national brand that didn’t do its marketing homework.

It seems like this video is meant to appeal to men and women who find the whole conversation amusing. It cynically positions itself as above it all. What it doesn’t do is credit men for being anything in the family but goofballs. I’d like to think we’re going to move past this kind of sarcasm about dads, but so far, no dice. Is this piece so over the top sarcastic that its actually skewering the idea that dads are useless? I don’t see it. The only hint we get of that, is that it is a send up of the original video. But beyond that single marker, it seems to laugh it up about men on every measure of parenting competence.

Humor about dads, doesn’t have to be a put down about dads. Budweiser, tell your multi-million dollar agency to get a clue.

C’mon Budweiser, wake up. Men of this generation don’t aspire to lay on the couch, drink beer and laugh about how screwed up we are as parents. Budweiser missed a chance to tell a much more nuanced and much funnier comedy story here. One in which dads and moms could both feel good about being full time parents even as they stumble through sleepless nights and PTA meetings. Being a full time parent is weird and challenging and fun and yes, exhausting, and happening all over the place to men and women alike.

Bud, you blew it. You had a chance to build brand loyalty among a demographic who could certainly use a cold beer now and again. Note to corporate marketing departments across the globe: Humor about dads, doesn’t have to be a put-down about dads. Tell your multi-million dollar agency to ditch the Mr. Mom cliches and join us in this century.

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So wasteful. Budweiser had some of the most heartfelt and effective ads of the Superbowl. Did they switch agencies or something? Just bad. And completely untrue. My Dad was nurturing and present and all those things we usually think Moms are. And that was back in the 70s, folks, so I’m sure plenty million have come after him.

The reason these kinds of ads about goofy, aloof, and sloppy dads still dominate is that many men themselves don’t challenge it. In fact, they eat it up. Many men just go along with whatever stereotype or role society says they are supposed to play. They are too afraid of being deemed “not masculine enough” or “not a real man” so they hardly challenge ads that stereotype them as long as they think that is what is necessary to keep them within the bounds of acceptable masculinity.

I struggle with a mom or dad comparing “jobs” to being a mom or dad. There are aspects of being a mom or dad that can and are difficult but to call those roles as “hardest jobs?” It goes back to the early feminist movement where women and their roles as mom’s were demeaned by equating things they do/did as “house keeper,” “baby sitter,” “cook,” etc. Mom’s and dad’s do what they do out of love, nothing more, nothing less. My son-in-law is a fireman and a GREAT dad … He is a dad who has a “job” as a… Read more »

My one neighbor was telling me about how when he was small how his mom one day decided she didn’t want to be a wife and mother to him, his 2 brothers,and his sister. His father, who worked for the railroad, was suddenly on his own. “It wasn’t always pretty” he told me, “but somehow, we made it work”. One thing he said he and his siblings do every year besides giving their dad a Father’s Day card is to celebrate Mother’s Day with him every year. The challenge is finding the right card but he said it’s important to… Read more »

While the situation they were in may have been bleak its nice to see that they showed appreciation for what their dad did. I know around Father’s Day there is a push to try to thank the moms that are both mother and father to their kids but the same is not done in return for dads on Mother’s Day.

It’s a good thing I don’t drink beer and when I do, it’s a Heineken. If mom’s spent 135 hours / week working, it’s not the toughest job. Cops will tell you they’re cops 24 hours a day, 7 days / week, 168 hours a week. Volunteer firefighters are firefighters 168 hours a week and they manage this while still being dads and raising children without pay for either.

Cops will tell you they’re cops 24 hours a day, 7 days / week, 168 hours a week. Volunteer firefighters are firefighters 168 hours a week and they manage this while still being dads and raising children without pay for either.
For real. And try telling a soldier that being a mom is the toughest job….